client can not be managed network path not found

I am tring to configure SBS 2003, I am testing the features.
I get an error message of "Computer \\clientPC cannot be managed. the network path was not found. choose 'connect to another computer' from the action menu to manage a different computer.
i could not connect to any of them. i could ping the pcs to each other and the pcs to the server, but not the server to the PCs.
How can I resolve this?
i cannot manage computers nor offer remote assistance.

Please provide step by step instructions.
I am new and doing this as a favor, if i get good at it it can be permanent.

your client PCs firewall probably are up. try to temporarily disable one client PC's firewall, and make sure its File and Printer Sharing service (Server service) is running, then PING the PC from the server.

you may use NET START at command prompt and see if "Server" service is in the list. If yes, File and Printer Sharing service (Server service) is running.

additionally, if you also have 3rd party firewall software installed on the client PC, you need to temporarily disable it too. "temporarily" means it is just for test. once you have found the firewall was the reason, you may configure the firewall to work with internal file and printer sharing.

Disable Windows Firewall in Windows XP SP2
Note A firewall is designed to help protect your computer from attack by malicious users or by malicious software. Malicious software includes viruses that use unsolicited incoming network traffic to attack your computer. Before you disable your firewall, you must disconnect your computer from all networks, including the Internet.
To do this, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type Firewall.cpl, and then click OK.
2. On the General tab, click Off (not recommended), and then click OK.
-------------
Will this allow me to go to control panel -->windows firewall to disable the firewall.
because right now iit is grayed out to make any changes
--josh

yes, i am the administrator.
i am new to this venture, it is a learning experience for me.
iam not sure what you mean by "have a domain level group policy which doesn't allow users to change their..."
i know that even as administrator on the clients laptops the selection for turning off the firewall is disabled.
i cannot click on either on or off, it is set to on automatically

I am still unable to diasable my laptop firewall to be able to do the following as per original post:

I am tring to configure SBS 2003, I am testing the features.
I get an error message of "Computer \\clientPC cannot be managed. the network path was not found. choose 'connect to another computer' from the action menu to manage a different computer.
i could not connect to any of them. i could ping the pcs to each other and the pcs to the server, but not the server to the PCs.
How can I resolve this?
i cannot manage computers nor offer remote assistance.

Please provide step by step instructions.
I am new and doing this as a favor, if i get good at it it can be permanent.

Don't fret about disabling your firewll just yet. Your network is behind a router, that provides Network Address Translation. That is also called a Hardware Firewall. By disabling the software firewall, you are dropping your gaurd between the clients and servers, not your domain and the outside world.

bbao, is also onto somthing with group policy. It appears you have a group policy that is preventing you from changing or disabling the client firewall. There is also something that is preventing you from pinging from the server. It may also be a gropu policy for your clients.

What I would like to explore are a couple things that will help us troubleshoot.

Are you using ISA firewall on your network?
Can you give us an example of your network topology?
what we are looking for: WAN>>Router>>Serveron NIC1 and clients, for domain 2 Server on NIC2>>clients.

ChiefIT,
my topology is:
internet, modem, router, external nic on server, internal nic from server to switch/hub,, hub to clients.
How can I check if I am using ISA as a fireall on my network?
Please advise

>> yes, i am the administrator.
> How can I check if I am using ISA as a fireall on my network?

it seems you are not the administrator who actually built the network. :-)

to check if you are running ISA server on the above server, just log on the server with an admin account, at Control Panel | Add or Remove Programs, find something likes Microsoft ISA Server in the list of Currently Installed Programs.

additionally, you better check some client computers as well, to see if they have ISA Client installed and enabled. this would also change client PCs behaviour.

You have at least two, possibly three methods of NAT (Network Address Translation). Networking to the outside world can be difficult and it can get some of the best administrators.

@bbao:

Are you a moderator? I could use a moderator's help with this author. There are multiple posts pertaining to this domain. All are legitimate problems, but could stem from just a couple of configuration settings.

Without the full scoop, some experts can be providing educated guesses without being fully educated. Maybe we can move everyone to a single post for a misconfigured domain. It would be far less confusing for the author and fellow experts. What's the best way to forgo confusion and keep it fair to the experts who spent time across the board?

i_ramesis:
Please understand that we need to streamline the solutions to your problem. The confusion you are about to undergo by getting multiple answers from many different administrators will be mind boggling. To best serve you, you will need a step-by-step procedure to configure your network.

In my opinion, you need to:
1) Get rid of NIC two. Given your topology, it is not necessay and just adds fuel to the fire by trying to route across your server. Routing across your server requires some very special server networking configurations.
2) Then configure DHCP. Once DHCP is working, you should be able to network between computers
3) Then check Active Directory and join the domain with clients as necessary.
3) Then configure ISA on servers and clients, (if applicable).
4) then configure DNS
5) then configure Dynamic DNS scavaging throuh DHCP
6) Once done with that, then get an idea of where you are at with other services. This Domain controller requires many settings to configure before it all works. Steps one through five are the basics for a domain. Some of the other services you may have been trying to sort out include: Mail (is this on the Domain Controller?), A domain web page (is this on the Domain Controller?), WSUS (is this on your Domain controller?)

Before working on Step 6: we will need to determine what services you plan on running with this server. Note, some services do not play well with others.

The above links you provided me are pointing out to an improperly configured domain, (across the board).

You have dual NICS, DHCP isn't working, DNS isn't working, WSUS isn't working, your domain web page iisn't working and you are having problems with email. All are related to a misconfigured domain.

ChiefIT,
I need both NICS, it is a requirement.
The information on the server will be valuable and we need protection.
How will I connect the clients?
The second nic is connected to the hub, then the clients are connected to the hub.
The clients can ping the server and the server can pring the printer as well as itself.
The server cannot ping the clients.
This is depressing me, I followed the directions on the book from Microsoft, "Small Business Server 2003 R2, Administrators Companion".
I was able to ping one of the clients from the server earlier on before I tried to add the HP laser printer to the network. I contacted HP support and they had me make changes, those changes messed me all up. It ended up being that the printer is not compatible with the operating system.
With keeping my two nics, the next step can be:
should i run through the To-Do-List again?

Manage projects of all sizes how you want. Great for personal to-do lists, project milestones, team priorities and launch plans.
- Combine task lists, docs, spreadsheets, and chat in one
- View and edit from mobile/offline
- Cut down on emails

your internal (192.168.1.2) and external (192.168.1.102) adapters are staying on the same subnet 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.255.0. since the default gateway is assigned to your external adapter, so all traffic to internal workstations actually goes to the external adapter, that's why you cannot PING from the server to PCs.

you must use two IP subnets to separate your internal and external networks.

it seems that your router actually connects your LAN to the internet (if your routers external 's default gateway is not your modem, hehe :-))), therefore if you may consider using the router as the firewall. otherwise, you have too many internal networks. it is not necessary.

bbao,
I got my internet fully functional but I still would like to go back to the original question I posed in the beginning, please:

I am tring to configure SBS 2003, I am testing the features.
I get an error message of "Computer \\clientPC cannot be managed. the network path was not found. choose 'connect to another computer' from the action menu to manage a different computer.
i could not connect to any of them. i could ping the pcs to each other except for one of the laptops and the pcs to the server could ping the server, but not the server to the the mentioned laptop.
this one laptop cannot be pinged.
How can I resolve this?
i cannot manage computers nor offer remote assistance.

Please provide step by step instructions.
I am new and doing this as a favor, if i get good at it it can be permanent.

@Ramesis:
Stick with this post. Follow these instructions before you apply the fixes to other posts. This post will provide you the means to communicate/network your computers. Once we can communicate, then we can go onto roles and services configuration.

Too many subnets, I agree totally with bbao! I am monitoring in the background. I haven't responded because bbao isn't saying anything I wouldn't say.

Ramesis, you have things so tightened down you can't breath. You have 1 router providing NAT (Hardware Firewall), Server providing that is routing packets like a router (NAT) and also has an ISA firewall, Clients with firewall, and possibly a Modem with routing capabilities as another hardware firewall. Don't be afraid to lower the guard down a little as bbao is about to ask you to do.

@bbao:
Remove the modem, remove the router, or remove NIC 2; bbao, What do you think would be esiest? NIC 2 didn't seem to be working right and without the correct settings never routed over the server in the first place. Also NIC two was conflicting with NIC1. The server is already behind a hardware firewall. So, is NIC2 necessary? Is this a multi-homed domain?

this feature does not work with one of the laptops, it works with one that was left here for me to install software, the other latops everyone took it with them.
But for now, my laptop cannot be managed.
When I click on the firewall Icon from the other laptop i get this message:
Windows Firewall
Windows Firewall settings cannot be displayed because the associated service is not running. Do you want to start the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection.

I should not touch this, correct?
leave it as is.
THird part firewall is sufficient, correct?

To answer your question, stick with ISA. It's a much better firewall than Windows.

If the router is providing NAT, you now have two forms of NAT on your LAN. That's more than enough and will be a little tricky.

I think it is time to get the big picture of your routing. Please answer the following, yes/no questions.

1) On the WAN side of the router, are you getting a Dynamic IP from your ISP?
2) On the LAN side of the router, do you have DHCP enabled?
3) On the LAN side of the router, do you have the ISP's DNS server listed there?
4) On the LAN side of the router, do you have your server's external NIC listed there?
5) On the server, are the IP addresses that Microsoft set up on a different subnet?
6) On the Servers IP stack, do you have only your server listed in DNS?
7) On the server, are both external and internal NICs using fixed IPs?
8) On the clients, are the clients getting a Dynamic IP on the internal subnet of the domain?

ChiefIT,
Below are the my responses to your questions:
"To answer your question, stick with ISA. It's a much better firewall than Windows. "
how can i check to see if ISA is active and when should I disable windows firewall on the server?
am i suppose to turn off the Windows firewall on the server? or on the Clients machine?

"If the router is providing NAT, you now have two forms of NAT on your LAN. That's more than enough and will be a little tricky. "
what is NAT?

1) On the WAN side of the router, are you getting a Dynamic IP from your ISP?
Static IP from ISP
2) On the LAN side of the router, do you have DHCP enabled?
YES
3) On the LAN side of the router, do you have the ISP's DNS server listed there?
How do I check
4) On the LAN side of the router, do you have your server's external NIC listed there?
Yes, the nic is called external LAN
5) On the server, are the IP addresses that Microsoft set up on a different subnet?
Yes
6) On the Servers IP stack, do you have only your server listed in DNS?
How do I check
7) On the server, are both external and internal NICs using fixed IPs?
Yes, both using fixed IPs
8) On the clients, are the clients getting a Dynamic IP on the internal subnet of the domain?
the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0

ISP gave you a fixed IP for your router: Let's call it:
IP (A.B.C.D)
Your router, on the internet/WAN side should be using that fixed IP:
IP (A.B.C.D)
The router does a network address translation. So, on the LAN side of the router your IP subnet changes to a different subnet. That is NAT (Network Address Translation). NAT is like a modem that takes info to/from one IP and puts it on another. Since NAT was done, on the LAN side of your router, you should have a fixed IP.
IP (E.F.G.H)
Now your server picks it up on that subnet on the WAN side of the server. So, the WAN side of the server should have a IP like this:
IP (E.F.G.X)
Your server also performs NAT and acts as a router. So on the LAN side of the server, you should be in the same subnet as the clients and your CLIENTS and SERVER's IP addresses will be something like this:
IP (I.J.K.???)

Example of your topology:
ISP> Modem >WAN side of the router NAT to LAN side of router>>WAN side of server NAT to LAN side of server> LAN side of server with all nodes on the LAN.

Now you have one NIC card talking with the clients from the server. And one nic card goes to the router. DHCP Should be turned off on the router. You only want your server to supply DHCP, not the router. If your clients see the router supplying DHCP, there is a chance your clients may end up getting DHCP from the router and they will be put on the LAN side of the router, not the LAN side of the server.

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